Old School vs New School

by Peter Merchlewitz

I know that there are people afraid of change. Some people believe that the old ways are best. Or in the words of one of my favorite musicals: "Tradition!". Dave Lee's jBlog reports the feelings of Middle East reporter Robert Fisk, who believes that the new age of internet blogging is crippling the quality of news writing. "To hell with the web. It's got no responsibility." said Fisk after being challenged about a quote whom the caller stated that he "...read it on the Internet."

Lee comes to the defense of blogging by reminding journalists what it is that we try to accomplish: to inform, educate, and and apply a sense of public voice. He even goes a step further, talking about an image shown in one of Fisk's articles, one of a man holding his dead daughter whose bones were protruding from her legs. However, due to traditional news reporting mediums, part of the picture was cropped, cutting the daughter off just below the bone, thus changing the caption of the photo "A man carries his wounded daughter."', ergo, completely changes the initial impact that the image presents.

Had Fisk actually given this new fangled thing called blogging a try, he might have realized that he would have been able to post the entire image, instead of just most of it. But not only that, blogs are becoming more and more popular source of news information, when compared to ABC's figures of people who read the news paper.

Some people say that without tradition, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on a roof. One of these days, that fiddler might fall and break his neck. And when that day occurs, make a picture, and make sure you post it on your blog.

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Web site pros

by Sarah Keller

My blog last week was about a small paper that was not utilizing their web site and resources properly, but this week I would like to blog about journalists who are using their tools and congratulate them for being resourceful.

As been discussed on various people’s blog entries from the classes, the world of journalism is being turned toward the internet. There is more and more blogging being done, and mostly all newspapers have a web site in today’s society, even small colleges like Simpson have web sites for their papers. Since the dynamic of journalism seems to be shifting toward the web I have to applaud sites such as abc news.

The home page of abc news is probably my favorite web site to check for daily news, I am there at least once a day and I have to say that they are doing a great job of keeping the world updated on top news stories. They are using the things that we have discussed in class as being important for journalists today. They do a great job with their photography; every good journalist needs to have the ability to take good pictures. The abc network also updates their articles throughout the day portraying the immediacy element of journalism. On top of all of that abc also has videos to watch and not just from abc news channels they also give you the opportunity to watch news broadcasts from shows such as 20/20, Good morning America, Primetime, and more.

Not only is abc on top of their game these days but sites such as cnn.com and google news are also going along with what society is craving. They are staying on top of things and making great news with pictures, updates and video clips.

I have to salute abc news, and other popular web sites for their commitment to making their web sites the best they can be, updating the world daily, and for drawing me in.

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